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Forget Sora, Runway is the AI video maker coming to blow your mind
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Artificial intelligence-powered video maker Runway has officially launched its new Gen-3 Alpha model after teasing its debut a few weeks ago. The Gen-3 Alpha video creator offers major upgrades in creating hyper-realistic videos from user prompts. It's a significant advancement over the Gen-2 model released early last year. 

Runway's Gen-3 Alpha is aimed at a range of content creators, including marketing and advertising groups. The startup claims to outdo any competition when it comes to handling complex transitions, as well as key-framing and human characters with expressive faces. The model was trained on a large video and image dataset annotated with descriptive captions, enabling it to generate highly realistic video clips. As of this writing, the company is not revealing the sources of its video and image datasets.

The new model is accessible to all users signed up on the RunwayML platform, but unlike Gen-1 and Gen-2, Gen-3 Alpha is not free. Users must upgrade to a paid plan, with prices starting at $ 12 per month per editor. This move suggests Runway is ready to professionalize its products after having the chance to refine them, thanks to all of the people playing with the free models. 

Initially, Gen-3 Alpha will power Runway's text-to-video mode, allowing users to create videos using natural language prompts. In the coming days, the model's capabilities will expand to include image-to-video and video-to-video modes. Additionally, Gen-3 Alpha will integrate with Runway's control features, such as Motion Brush, Advanced Camera Controls, and Director Mode.

Runway stated that Gen-3 Alpha is only the first in a new line of models built for large-scale multimodal training. The end goal is what the company calls “General World Models,” which will be capable of representing and simulating a wide range of real-world situations and interactions.

AI Video Race

The immediate question is whether Runway's advancements can meet or exceed what OpenAI is doing with its attention-grabbing Sora model. While Sora promises one-minute-long videos, Runway's Gen-3 Alpha currently supports video clips that are only up to 10 seconds long. Despite this limitation, Runway is betting on Gen-3 Alpha's speed and quality to set it apart from Sora, at least until it can augment the model as they have planned, making it capable of producing longer videos. 

The race isn't just about Sora. Stability AI, Pika, Luma Labs, and others are all eager to claim the title of best AI video creator. As the competition heats up, Runway's release of Gen-3 Alpha is a strategic move to assert a leading position in the market.

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Forget Duolingo – Google Translate just got a massive AI upgrade that gives it over 100 new languages
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Google Translate is adding 110 new languages to its library, the largest expansion ever made to the platform. The update leverages Google's PaLM 2 large language model, an artificial intelligence tool that helps accurately translate across a wider array of languages than before. Those languages are spoken by approximately 614 million people, or about 8% of the global population. 

The list includes some widely spoken tongues, dialects, and languages that are native to smaller communities. Notably, African languages saw their biggest expansion, with Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda, and Wolof joining the list. On the other end of the spectrum, Cantonese is likely one of the most widely spoken languages on the new list, as is Punjabi (Shahmukhi), the most spoken language in Pakistan. 

There's also the Sicilian version of Italian, Manx, a Celtic language spoken on the Isle of Man that nearly went extinct, and a Papua New Guinea creole called Tok Pisin.

PaLM 2 Talk

For languages that blend regional dialects and different spelling standards, Google goes for something that might be best understood by most people, as with the Romani language offered by Google Translate, which includes three different dialects. 

The PaLM 2 LLM made the update possible, enhancing Google Translate's ability to learn and shift between languages efficiently. This model is particularly adept at handling languages that are closely related, like Awadhi and Marwadi, to Hindi or the various French creoles. PaLM 2's advanced capabilities allow it to manage the nuances and variations within these languages, providing more accurate and culturally relevant translations. 

The application of PaLM 2 to Google Translate is also interesting due to its origins as a tool for helping foster communications between humans and AI. For instance, both PaLM and PaLM 2 have been employed for helping teach robots how to carry out tasks and process commands from humans into steps to complete those tasks.

Potentially, the best part is that it's available on the web or via the Google Translate app on Android and iOS. 

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Want Wi-Fi 7 on Windows 10? Forget it, Microsoft has confirmed it’s for Copilot+ PCs only
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Microsoft has confirmed that the superfast wireless speeds that have arrived courtesy of Wi-Fi 7 – for devices and routers with support – will only be coming to the very latest version of Windows 11.

That’d be Windows 11 24H2, of course, and as you might know, this version is only currently available for Copilot+ PCs, but the big update for 2024 will roll out to all Windows 11 users later this year (maybe in September).

For now, though, the new Wi-Fi support is for Copilot+ PCs only, as Windows Latest spotted a Microsoft support document that confirmed this.

In the document on the latest wireless technology in Windows, Microsoft states: “Wi-Fi 7 is available starting with Windows 11, version 24H2.”

Now, that doesn’t mean that Wi-Fi 7 will always be limited to that specific incarnation of Windows 11 – 24H2 (or later) – just that Microsoft is kicking off availability with this version. It might be the case that it’s added to earlier versions of Windows 11 (well, 23H2) before too long.

However, it looks like Windows 10 users are out of luck though, as there’s no mention of the OS – as was the case with Wi-Fi 6E, the advancement on Wi-Fi 6 that previously came through.

Analysis: Wi-Fi 6E misstep unlikely to happen again

So, it seems like Wi-Fi 7 won’t debut for Windows 10, but that isn’t really a massive surprise. Firstly, Windows 10 runs out of support in not that much more than a year now, so it’s going to be limited in terms of new features being introduced anyway (though there will be some new additions into the mix, we know that much – enough to prompt Microsoft to resurrect the Beta testing channel for the OS).

And secondly, Windows 10 didn’t get Wi-Fi 6E as noted above, so it seems unlikely that it’d receive Wi-Fi 7 support. We can’t completely rule it out, of course – as it’s not explicitly stated that Windows 10 won’t – but that seems to be the heavy hint Microsoft is dropping by only mentioning Windows 11 versions.

Now, there is a slight twist here, in that Windows 10 did receive Wi-Fi 6E in what seemed to be a mistake with a single Intel driver that erroneously added support (somehow) – but that driver is reportedly buggy and not to be used (if you can find it at all). So, you could hope this might happen with Wi-Fi 7, but we’re betting it won’t – and Intel has learned from this mistake.

In short, don’t expect speedy Wi-Fi 7 for Windows 10, and of course remember that even on Windows 11, you need a router and PC that supports the new wireless standard to benefit from Wi-Fi 7.

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Forget the Apple Car – Porsche has been using the Apple Vision Pro with its record-breaking new Taycan
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Porsche has just unveiled its most dynamic Taycan so far – the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT. This takes the Taycan Turbo S, gives it more power, reduces the weight and primes it for the track. There are two versions of the new car, the Taycan Turbo GT and the Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach package, which loses the backseats and gains a rear wing to make it a record-breaking track car. 

The unveiling of any new Porsche model wouldn't be complete without some mention of its performance credentials and a portion of the launch presentation included coverage of a record-breaking lap from the Laguna Seca raceway in California. 

It seems that Porsche CEO Oliver Blume couldn't make it to The Golden State himself, so instead, he watched it using Apple Vision Pro. Cut to Tim Cook congratulating Porsche on their record-breaking new car, one of many examples of Porsche and Apple's strong ongoing partnership.

Blume wasn't just watching a video feed on Apple Vision Pro, however. He was in a full-on spatial computing mode, virtual track map, multiple windows of telematics, video feed from the car on the track – even the driver's heart rate was displayed. A celebration of cutting-edge tech at a corporate level? You bet. 

an image of the Apple Vision Pro being used with a Porsche virtual cockpit

(Image credit: Porsche / Chris Hall)

“What an amazing experience it was to join the team virtually along with Apple Vision Pro. Thanks to our custom race engineer cockpit app, it felt like I was right there in Laguna Seca with Lars [Kern, Porsche development driver],” said Blume.

“It has been great to bring the best of German engineering and Apple's inspiring product innovations together.”

Cue Tim Cook's surprise cameo. “Congratulations to you and the Porsche team on the new record you set with this incredible new vehicle. It's these kinds of extraordinary milestones that show the world what can happen when a team of incredibly dedicated people come together to break new ground on a big idea,” said Cook.

“Porsche has always been known for excellence,” continued Cook, “and we're proud to see a number of our products play a role in what you do. And it's so great to see Apple Vision Pro helping reimagine track experiences.”

The mutual backslapping continued for a little longer, before Blume dropped the next nugget: “We appreciate the great partnership we have established over the years, starting with the My Porsche app on Apple CarPlay and now we're taking it one step further with Porsche's Apple Vision Pro race app to bring the best user experience to our employees and customers.”

The appearance of Apple Vision Pro went virtually unnoticed, however. There was no mention of any Apple Vision Pro app in the press materials and when asked at the launch site in Leipzig, there was no more information forthcoming. Porsche it seems, aren't saying any more about it.

Chalk it down as the ultimate tease perhaps: there doesn't seem to be a name for the app that was used – Oliver Blume himself referred to it in two different ways – but it does demonstrate that Porsche and Apple are continuing to work on technologies together beyond Apple CarPlay and the customisation of the Porsche digital displays.

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Forget completing Zelda as fast as possible – the latest speedrun to beat is an installation of Windows 10
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Speed running has long been a pursuit undertaken by gamers, but in more recent times we’ve seen some more left-field speedruns, and here’s another one: a super-quick installation of Windows 10.

Yes, you read that right, the challenge of installing the Microsoft operating system as fast as possible was taken on by NTDev, who is the developer of the lightweight version of Windows 10 known as Tiny10 (and its sibling version for Windows 11, named Tiny11 as you might guess).

NTDev managed to install their own version of Windows 10, meaning Tiny10, in just over 100 seconds, so not far off a minute and a half.

Pretty impressive? Yes, but there is a caveat, and it’s not a tiny one: the Tiny10 version used was an old and further modified installer which was optimized with speed running in mind.

In fact, the attempt was made using a Tiny10 install based on Windows 10 1809, which is the October 2018 Update.

Analysis: Rules of the game?

To be fair, a working version of Windows 10 was still installed – well, we assume – and the caveat of it being an old Tiny10 build, further tinkered with and streamlined to set up at lightning speed, isn’t really a criticism as such. Depending on how you look at things, anyway…

After all, a speed run which was just the standard install process, based on how fast you could click, would be deadly dull and pointless, of course. For us, the hacking away at the OS to run faster in setup is the speed running, in the same way that, for example, bouncing off walls or strafe running and so on is for gamers (and often finding weird glitches to exploit in one way or another).

As long as the Windows version that’s up and running actually functions, the speed run should count in our books. But, if we’re going to get serious for a moment, this does bring up complicated questions about what could be legitimately cut out, and what features must remain, if you wanted to standardize OS speed running rules in some way.

The other (perhaps simpler, but less fun arguably) route to go would be having a standard installation mandated, with no tweaking, so the skill would be in the hardware setup. However, even then, there would need to be rules on what setups and components were fair game. (Naturally NTDev tells us they were using the fastest storage and RAM they could get their hands on).

At any rate, this is an entertaining feat to watch, especially given that a typical Windows installation will probably eat around half an hour of your life (and most definitely isn’t something you’d want to watch). All that’s missing here, frankly, is a ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ soundtrack which surely should have been the choice of background music (not the feeble electronic beat supplied).

There’s also a recent Windows 11 speedrun from NTDev which is completed in a somewhat longer, but still impressive, three minutes (see above).

How long does it take you to install Windows 11? For us, it’s two-and-a-third years and counting (sorry Microsoft, couldn’t resist).

Via Tom's Hardware

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Don’t forget your Vision Pro passcode – if you do you’ll have to send your headset back to Apple
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There are a few big features that the Apple Vision Pro is missing – such as support for Bluetooth mice and location tracking for the Apple Find My network – but perhaps the strangest omission from the Apple Vision Pro is the ability to reset your device if you forget your passcode.

During the Vision Pro set-up process you’ll be asked to enter a six-digit passcode, just as you would when setting up an iPhone or iPad. You can also optionally set up an Optic ID login method, but just as with Face ID on your other Apple gadgets there will be times when you’ll be forced to enter your passcode – for example after your headset has restarted.

If you ever forget your iPad or iPhone passcode you can unlock your Apple device by connecting it to your Mac or PC and wiping the data on it, and on the Apple Watch you can use the digital crown or your connected iPhone to do the same thing. Yes you’ll delete all the data, but a blank gadget is better than a gadget you’re forever locked out of.

However, while the Apple Vision Pro also has a setting that allows you to erase all your content – including the passcode – it’s only accessible via the Settings app. If you're locked out of your headset because you’ve forgotten your passcode there’s currently no at-home way to get into your Vision Pro. 

Instead, as reported by Bloomberg ($ /£), you’ll need to either take your headset back to your local Apple Store, or ship it back to Apple to have it reset if there isn’t a physical store near you.

Apple Vision Pro battery pack

Locked out? Send it back to Apple, or say hello to your new paperweight (Image credit: Apple)

Is there a workaround? 

Unfortunately, the only workaround to this problem available to most people is to not forget your passcode in the first place.

We’ve seen reports that users with the Developer Strap – a dongle that adds a USB-C port to the Vision Pro so that it can be connected to a Mac computer – could erase the Vision Pro’s content and passcode using a Mac. However, the Developer Strap costs $ 300 and is only available to officially registered developers, so most people won’t have access to it – and we’ve not been able to confirm that this method works, so there’s a chance the dongle wouldn’t even help you if you had one.

We expect that Apple will launch some kind of alternative way to erase your Vision Pro passcode in due course, especially once the gadget is made available outside the US, and sending your headset back becomes even more inconvenient for some. But for now you might want to make a note of your passcode, taking the usual precautions to ensure that this is secure.

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Excited for Apple’s Vision Pro? Forget that, rumors have started about how the sequel will be better
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Apple is rumored to be considering making changes to the next version of the Vision Pro – still some way off, given the first-gen model is yet to launch, of course – around slimming down the headset’s size and weight.

In Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter (for Bloomberg), the well-known Apple leaker told us that the company is mulling some notable improvements for the next-gen Vision Pro on the comfort front.

Gurman observes that with some feedback from testers expressing concerns about neck strain due to the weight of the headset, Apple wants to make the next-gen device both lighter and more compact.

This may be a key focus for the next iteration of the Vision Pro, as Apple fears that the weight of the incoming first device “could turn off consumers already wary of mixed-reality headsets,” Gurman asserts. The Vision Pro can feel too heavy for some folks, even during shorter periods of use, we’re told.

Reducing the weight of next-gen Vision Pro is the priority by the sounds of it, with any size reduction likely to be much less noticeable (and harder to achieve).

As 9 to 5 Mac, which spotted this, further points out, Apple actually already made the incoming first-gen headset more compact – with a trade-off. Namely, the design doesn’t give room for people who wear prescription glasses to be able to fit those in.

So, that creates a separate issue in catering to spectacle wearers, and Apple’s solution is to implement a system of prescription lenses that magnetically attach to the 4K displays for the headset.

That’s not ideal, though, for a lot of reasons. It’s a headache for retailers in terms of stocking the huge number of lens prescriptions they’ll have to deal with – having to find the right one for a glasses wearer not just if they’re buying, but also if they’re simply wanting to try out the headset.

Another obvious downside is that the owner’s glasses prescription may well change in the future (ours certainly does, repeatedly), so again, there’s the hassle of having to get new lenses for your Vision Pro too.

It seems Apple is mulling the idea of shipping custom-built headsets directly with the correct prescription lenses preinstalled, but there could be problems with that, as well.

Gurman noted: “First, built-in prescription lenses could make Apple a health provider of sorts. The company may not want to deal with that. Also, that level of customization would make it harder for consumers to share a headset or resell it.”

Whether that whole thorny nest of glasses-related issues can be tackled with the Vision Pro 2, well, we’ll just have to see.

Apple Vision Pro

(Image credit: Apple)

Analysis: Long-term vision for success

So, it seems like the weight of the Vision Pro might be an issue from early testing feedback. That said, in his try-out session, our editor-in-chief found the headset “relatively comfortable” and so wasn’t critical on that front. But 9 to 5 Mac’s writer observed that while shorter sessions are likely to be fine, they could “absolutely see getting tired of wearing [the headset] after extended sessions.”

This may vary from person to person somewhat, it’s true, but it sounds like if Apple is indeed planning to make the next-gen headset lighter, the firm is recognizing that things in this department are less than ideal.

At any rate, while it’s good to hear this, we’ll only really know how the Vision Pro shapes up on the comfort front when it comes to full review time.

For us, though, the most uncomfortable part of the Vision Pro experience is the price. Even just looking at that price tag makes our hearts heavy, as we won’t ever be able to afford the thing.

At $ 3,500 in the US (around £2,900, AU$ 5,500) – and remember, the prescription lenses will add to that bill, especially if you need multiple lenses for different family members – the Vision Pro is just too rich for our blood. We just can’t see that price flying with consumers when Apple’s headset hits the shelves next year in the US (in theory early in 2024).

Especially with mixed reality and VR headsets in general being a niche enough prospect as it is. Indeed, Meta’s Quest 3 is so, so much more affordable in comparison, and for the money represents a great buy.

It’s not like Apple doesn’t realize all this, of course, and we’ve already heard chatter on the grapevine about how a cheaper Vision Pro model might be inbound – which more than any other improvement, would be fantastic to see.

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Forget ChatGPT – NExT-GPT can read and generate audio and video prompts, taking generative AI to the next level
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2023 has felt like a year dedicated to artificial intelligence and its ever-expanding capabilities, but the era of pure text output is already losing steam. The AI scene might be dominated by giants like ChatGPT and Google Bard, but a new large language model (LLM), NExT-GPT, is here to shake things up – offering the full bounty of text, image, audio, and video output. 

NExT-GPT is the brainchild of researchers from the National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University. Pitched as an ‘any-to-any’ system, NExT-GPT can accept inputs in different formats and deliver responses according to the desired output in video, audio, image, and text responses. This means that you can put in a text prompt and NExT-GPT can process that prompt into a video, or you can give it an image and have that converted to an audio output. 

ChatGPT has only just announced the capability to ‘see, hear and speak’ which is similar to what NExT-GPT is offering – but ChatGPT is going for a more mobile-friendly version of this kind of feature, and is yet to introduce video capabilities. 

We’ve seen a lot of ChatGPT alternatives and rivals pop up over the past year, but NExT-GPT is one of the few LLMs we’ve seen so far that can match the text-based output of ChatGPT but also provide outputs beyond what OpenAI’s popular chatbot can currently do. You can head over to the GitHub page or the demo page to try it out for yourself. 

So, what is it like?

I’ve fiddled around with NExT-GPT on the demo site and I have to say I’m impressed, but not blown away. Of course, this is not a polished product that has the advantages of public feedback, multiple updates, and so on – but it is still very good. 

I asked it to turn a photo of my cat Miso into an image of him as a librarian, and I was pretty happy with the result. It may not be at the same level of quality as established image generators like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, but it was still an undeniably very cute picture.

Cat in a library wearing glasses

This is probably one of the least cursed images I’ve personally generated using AI. (Image credit: Future VIA NExT-GPT)

I also tested out the video and audio features, but that didn't go quite as well as the image generation. The videos that were generated were again not awful, but did have the very obvious ‘made by AI’ look that comes with a lot of generated images and videos, with everything looking a little distorted and wonky. It was uncanny. 

Overall, there’s a lot of potential for this LLM to fill the audio and video gaps within big AI names like OpenAI and Google. I do hope that as NExT-GPT gets better and better, we’ll be able to see a higher quality of outputs and make some excellent home movies out of our cats seamlessly in no time. 

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Forget Microsoft Copilot – an unofficial Clippy AI is available for Windows 11
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Clippy is back – sort of – and ready to help you out on the Windows 11 desktop, if you dare to install a new app (still in beta).

Okay, so yes, this is an odd one, but you may recall Clippy (real name Clippit, but everybody uses the nickname now) from the heady days of Office 97, where the paperclip performed as a virtual assistant. In theory, it helped you to do stuff, but in practice, Clippy was generally an annoying presence. (“It looks like you’re writing a letter…” – well, we aren’t, Clippy, so go away).

The awfulness of Clippy has been mostly forgotten in the mists of time now, replaced by a nostalgic fondness for the assistant, and one enterprising developer has been inspired to resurrect Microsoft’s creation from the 90s.

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FireCube has made the Clippy app which is available from the Microsoft Store (and elsewhere, for free), software that puts a Clippy icon on your Windows 11 (or Windows 10) desktop, one powered by OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 model (as in ChatGPT).

You can pin this Clippy to the desktop and chat away to what is essentially ChatGPT in paperclip form. Note that this is still very early days for the application, so if you take the plunge, expect issues. Likely lots of them.

Analysis: A paperclip that needs some polish

To give you some perspective on where we’re at with this app, Clippy for the desktop was put on Github only a couple of days ago, with the developer FireCube observing that there are still issues with random crashes. So, stability is likely to be somewhat wonky for the time being, we’d imagine.

A further sticking point is that an OpenAI key is required to use this preview version of the Clippy app. If you haven’t paid for one of those, you won’t be able to fire up Clippy. As noted by the dev, this is one of the most pressing known issues for the application, and FireCube is working on a way around this that’ll hopefully be implemented soon enough.

Further work promised in the near future is the ability to drag and resize Clippy, and FireCube aims to bring more classic characters into the mix alongside the paperclip – like Microsoft Bob.

You may recall that Bob was an attempt to make the interface of Windows 95 (and Windows 3.1 before that) more user-friendly by turning it into a cutesy representation of a house. Like Clippy, Bob turned into something of a joke in the computing community, and was a concept swiftly abandoned by Microsoft.

This new take on Clippy for Windows 11 is clearly a tongue-in-cheek move ahead of the inbound Copilot AI which should go into testing in the relatively near future. (Microsoft promised this would happen in June, but that looks like a bust at this point). To say all eyes are on Copilot, and how it’ll be implemented, is an understatement (check out this recent leak for the latest gossip).

AI is very much the future of Windows 11, or rather, next-gen Windows – that and shifting to the cloud (and maybe a subscription model) – so we don’t expect Copilot will be consigned to the bin in short order, as was the fate of Clippy (and indeed Bob). That said, you never know…

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